Tern 'tude.

(Royal Terns)

Maybe god is god, maybe the devil is me.

I kind of want to stick my head into this agave and let it consume me. Let it suck me into it's realm. Destroy me. While I'm busy doing that, you should check out this link: Salt in the Wound. My facebook friends, I know, are probably completely sick of me mentioning this song but I can't help it. I'm into it. And by into it, I mean ridiculously in love with it (and Delta Spirit themselves). I will watch it/listen to it for hours on end and be equally as moved as the time before. I ran 14 miles the other day with this song playing for I think 6 of them (seriously). If you get bored (lame) go to 5:09 and especially 5:32. If you don't get it, I'll probably be offended. But maybe this doesn't speak to you like it does to me. Oh yeah, I sound crazy and I don't really care. Pardon my non-teenage angst.

Some of this. A bit of that.

Pretty things happen in the Hill Country. It's true.

More from Anahuac

(Above: Forester's, Royal and Caspian Terns. Below: Black-bellied Plover)

Yeah, Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge is cool. Probably you should check it out if you haven't already (Tucker? Duh?). Although, I guess, really, not all of these are from Anahuac itself. Close enough though. I'm not gonna sweat it. If you haven't had the glorious chance to hang out on the Texas coast, well, you'll be disappointed. I mean, the birds are good, yes sir, yes ma'am. But you'll be terrified, horrified, maybe mesmerized in a twisted sort of way by the amount of gross you are surrounded by.

(Above: my tent and Vladimir, my badass civic who knows how to get stuff done. Also, a juvie Brown Pelican embracing it all)

But really, let's not get me started on that right now. I'm already looking for a fight. The birds are totally cool and the beach is a total disaster. I'm trying to be positive. (Also, sorry i've been out of the loop in checking out your blogs lately. Haven't really had internet access the last couple weeks!)

(Above: Neotropic Cormorant, Ring-billed Gull and Sanderlings being all cute and stuff)

Shrike Monsters

I finally managed to snag some photos of a Loggerhead Shrike recently. I went to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge (on the Texas Coast) a couple different weekends in the last few weeks and there were quite a few of these guys hanging around. They had taunted me in the past so I was kinda happy to get some sharp photos of 'em.

Found some of their gruesome food caches too (a fresh vole kill and an old one, yikes). I saw one snag a wasp or two and cache it in an old snag, kinda cool. World Bird Wednesday

I'm around(ish)

I'm still alive, people. More or less. I've been hanging out in the Texas hill country for a bit. It's been needed. This is the mighty Guadalupe River near Hunt, Texas. One of my happy places.

Cover Shot

Yes, this is me patting myself on the back. This photo of the Tufted Flycatcher (from Big Bend last December) made it on the cover for the current journal, Western Birds. I'm kind of pumped about it, not gonna deny it. Just a thumbnail size shot of the cover so there's a little bigger version above. Sweet! (by the way, i'm not really 'of' starkville, ms, just so you know)

Daily dose of cute

I know Yellow-rumped Warblers aren't terribly exciting to birders, but I don't care. This one looks especially cute and he makes me smile.